A monster most every weekday. Three adventure seeds a post.
Because Pathfinder and 3.5 are more fun than work.
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Thursday, April 9, 2015

Julunggali

It’s hard to get more mythic than the julunggali.A Colossal, semidivine snake, the julunggali can
literally move heaven and earth
courtesy of spell-like abilities like control
water, create water, mythic move earth, and mythic control weather.And you don't want to mess with a being that
can bestow curses at will, throw
mythic baleful polymorphs (which
transform partially even on a successful save), and choose at whim how serious the
poison is when it bites you—including aging you a whole age category.

That said, because julunggalis often preside over rites of
passage, PCs are as likely to encounter one at the very start of their careers
as they are at the end of them.“Encounter”
being the key word here, not “fight”…until they’re at least Level 16 or
so.And should they break one of the
snake’s sacred taboos, they might find out just how vengeful a CR 21/MR 8
magical beast can be.

The key to stopping a
qlippoth invasion is to pour the blood of a seraph onto an ideogram-carved
rock in a distant wilderness.But doing
so means breaking the taboo of a julunggali adamantly opposed to keeping the
carvings unmolested.Can she be
convinced to relent?(After all, she is
old enough to remember the dark epoch when qlippoths ruled.)Or must she be defeated as the penultimate
trial before the party’s showdown with the iathavos?

Even for a famously
close-mouthed race like the dwarves, the Stone Shapers are a breed
apart.This is because they don’t
worship the traditional dwarven pantheon, but instead revere their patron
julunggali.The dwarves keep their
worship secret from outsiders, working with the serpent to reshape their domain
in ways large and small according to mythical earth nodes and ley lines.Perhaps to compensate for their spiritual divide
from other dwarves, the Stone Shapers are otherwise fierce snake hunters,
famous for fighting serpentfolk, tarnished couatls, hollow serpents, and the
like.

The path to the Outer
Planes has been blocked ever since the Rainbow Bridge was shattered. A julunggali gathered up the pieces and has
guarded them in her temple complex ever since.Adventurers who wish to restore the bridge must complete three tasks,
which may include being polymorphed
into other races and species, living cursed
for a year, fetching an artifact from the Realm of Death (and trusting the
julunggali to supply the necessary raise
dead), or fighting the Colossal serpent itself.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 4
164

Given that the julunggali seems to be inspired by the
Australian Aboriginal rainbow snake goddess Julunggul, this mythic serpent
would be perfect paired with the
Aborigine-inspired chameleon men portrayed in “The Voyage of the Princess Ark
in Dragon Magazine #186.In fact, one of the Land of Wallara’s patron
deities is Agundji, the Rainbow
Serpent, an aspect of the draconic Immortal known as the Great One.

(I’m finally getting over my pedantic squeamishness about
linking to PDFs of old Dragon issues.Normally I’m pretty fierce about protecting
OC, but we’re talking 20+ years, three editions past, and no easy way to get
these mags legally, so screw it.)

(Speaking of which, that issue also has Michael Gabriel’s “50
Castle Hauntings,” James R. Collier’s “Welcome to the Neighborhood!”—a look at
fantasy cities (especially fantasy ethnic neighborhoods) that still feels fresh
today)—and an installment of “The Marvel-Phile” that shows Groot years before
he got turned into a household name.

Is there a German word for that feeling you get when you see
an old friend from years ago opening for and then dancing with the Mountain
Goats?

(Actually I missed the opening part because last night I was
on hospital discharge duty for a loved one, but I was there for all of the
Mountain Goats and accompanying dancing.)

Also I ran into my brother’s friend Alice, whose current flaming
neon-red hair upends everything you think you know about what a League of Women
Voters co-chair looks like.Let’s put it
this way: There are a lot of blue-haired old ladies in the League, but when
Alice is one of them, she means it.

I also saw David Sedaris Tuesday night!And am seeing The Ting Tings Saturday.Skipping Alex Winston tonight because I am tiiiiiiiiiired.

By the way, please forgive the occasional typos. I am aware of them, but disagreements between MS Word and the Blogger template make my entries nearly impossible to edit once posted. I blame gremlins. You can find a more polished version of this blog over on Tumblr.